Energetic materials standards – Fundamental data supporting the munition life-cycle safey assessment

One of the main objectives of AC/326, the NATO CNAD Ammunition Safety Group, is that Energetic Materials are safe and suitable for service. Subgroup A Energetic Materials Team, SG/A(EMT), supports AC/326 by providing fundamental information on the development and maintenance of standards. It also gives guidance for the design, assessment and qualification of Energetic Materials. In order to strengthen interoperability, a key task of SG/A(EMT) is to promote a common language and agreed definitions, requirements and safety levels by providing internationally recognized standards.
The standards portfolio of SG/A(EMT) considers ingredients as well as test methods. As an overarching document, the methodology for the qualification of energetic materials embraces all these standards. Additionally the fundamental properties of energetic materials must be known and understood.
The ingredient standards set the baseline requirements for the materials that are incorporated into a wide variety of existing and developmental energetic formulations. These standards support the acquisition phase of the munition life-cycle. Guanylurea Dinitramide (GUDN or FOX-12), Butylnitroxyethylnitramine (Bu-NENA) and Triethylene Glycol Dinitrate (TEGDN) are the latest ingredients standardized by SG/A(EMT).
Standards for sensitivity testing are important documents maintained by SG/A(EMT). They include procedures to ensure that ingredients, formulations and munitions can be safely handled, processed, stored and transported. SG/A(EMT) follows the state of the art of international research and development (R&D) for Energetic Materials, e.g. Nano-Energetics and Reduced Sensitivity formulations, in order to understand their properties and anticipate relevant standardization issues.
An overview of the SG/A(EMT) portfolio including, current standardization efforts, the updating of methods to determine Energetic Materials properties, and how they link to developments in the Energetic Materials R&D arena, will be presented.